Every credit card has a list of exclusions. This list tells you which payments won’t earn you cashback, miles, or other rewards. Common exclusions include government fees, insurance premiums, and income taxes. However, there are a few ways to earn miles on these commonly excluded items.
There are two methods:
- Direct Payment
- Indirect Payment
1. Direct Payment via AXS Bills
Bill payments with Chocolate Debit Card will continue to earn miles, but do note that this will be capped at 100 miles per month
Bill payments refer to transactions under the following MCCs:
- 80 Medical & Health (MCC 8011–8099)
- 93 Government Services (MCC 9311–9399)
- 49 Utilities (MCC 4900–4999)
- 65 Real Estate & Property Management (MCC 6513, 6531)
- 63 Insurance (MCC 6300–6399)
- 73 Business Services (MCC 7311–7399)
For avoidance of doubt, you will not be able to use this card to pay for loans or credit card bills via AXS to earn miles.
Chocolate Visa Debit Card
Earn 1 mile per dollar on almost everything — including Insurance, Utilities, & Hospital Bills.
Only Bill Payments are capped at 100 miles per month, everything else earns uncapped.
2. Indirect Payment – Use CardUp/iPayMy to Earn Rewards
Even though you should always use the Choc Visa Debit Card first, you can only spend up to S$1,000 per calendar month to earn 1 mile per dollar. This is where we need this method.
CardUp/iPayMy, a third-party service, is one such service that allows you to pay anything that is usually excluded like renovation payments, income tax etc with your credit card and earn rewards like cashback or miles by paying a small fee.
Who is this for:
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- Those who want to claim business class flights because it may not be worthwhile for economy flights
Here’s how it works:
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- CardUp charges your credit card for the tax amount + a fee.
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- They handle the bank transfer to the company’s business account for you.
Sample Computation:
Say, you pay for a S$1,000 transaction, if there is a 2% admin fee charged by Cardup, and you are using the OCBC 90N Visa with earn rate of 1.3 miles per dollar.
To get the cost per mile:
(amount x admin fee)
amount x (1 + admin fee) x earn rate
S$1,000 x 0.02 = S$20 service fee
S$1,000 x (1+0.02) x 1.3 miles per dollar = 1,326 miles
= 20/1,326 = 0.015 cost per mile
You will be getting 1,326 miles with a S$20 service fee payment, on top of your original S$1,000 transaction.
Beyond 1.50 cents per mile, it might not be worth using Cardup, in my humble opinion.
How to maximise your rewards as a first time user:
Maximise your first transaction with these promo codes:
For example, if your transaction is S$3,000, break the payment into two via each platform.
- Cardup: Use code NICHOLASN116 for S$30 off your first payment (optimal payment: S$1154). Alternatively, if you have large payments, use code “LOBANGSIS” to get discounted 1.79% fee on up to S$5K on your first payment with a Visa card
- iPayMy: Sign up with www.lobangsis.com/ipaymy for an account to get S$30 off (optimal payment: S$1,250)
Afterwhich, you can leverage on the existing time-sensitive promotions which i will share in my telegram channel if there is a good deal.
Update:
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- Effective November 1, 2024, CardUp will impose restrictions on certain loan repayments. UnionPay cards will no longer be accepted for both personal and business loan repayments, including mortgages, car loans, and education loans. Visa cards, on the other hand, will only be restricted for business loan repayments.
These cards must be paired with CardUp/iPayMy:
UOB PRVI Card
Earn 1.4 miles per dollar on local spend and up to 3 miles per dollar on foreign currency spend
4 Priority Pass visits per calendar year
Citi Prestige Card
Earn 1.3 miles per dollar on local spend and 2 miles per dollar on foreign currency spend
12 Priority Pass visits per calendar year
DBS Vantage Card
Earn 1.5 miles per dollar (or 1.5% cashback) on local spend, 2.2 miles per dollar (or 2.2% cashback) on foreign currency spend
10 Priority Pass visits per membership year
DBS Altitude Card
Earn 1.3 miles per dollar on local spend and 2.2 miles per dollar on foreign currency spend
2 Priority Pass visits per membership year (Visa version only)
Citi PremierMiles Card
Earn 1.2 miles per dollar on local spend and 2.2 miles per dollar on foreign currency spend
2 Priority Pass visits per calendar year
OCBC 90N Card
Earn 1.3 miles per dollar on local spend and 2.1 miles per dollar on foreign currency spend
DCS Flex Card
Earn up to 8% cash rebates (best value), 2.4 miles per dollar, or 8% investment credits
How to pay your payments with your credit card:
- Sign Up for an account
2. Schedule a payment by selecting the relevant category
3. Select the recipient, you have two options:
- pre-loaded providers – if your merchant is on the list, click them directly
- add new recipient – if your merchant is not listed
4. Fill out details such as payment amount, choose the card and select “Standard payment”
5. Make a monthly recurring payment or one-time payment.
6. Key in your policy reference number, enter promo code below and click “Continue“
• For new users, use code: NICHOLASN116 for S$30 off your first payment to maximise your rewards, or if you have large payments, use code “LOBANGSIS” to get discounted 1.79% fee on up to S$5K on your first payment with a Visa card
For existing users, see above
After all that, you’re good to go!
*Some photos and Information are from cardup.co
Final Thoughts:
If you are a miles chaser, you can go for the UOB Priv Miles Card via CardUp for recurring payments because this is an entry level miles card with the lowest cost per mile at the moment. However, the miles do expire. Alternatively, for one-off payments, you could go with OCBC 90N Visa or Mastercard.
💳 Credit cards change their T&Cs every so often and it is difficult to stay updated. That’s why I created a Telegram Broadcast where you can receive timely bite-sized updates to get the most out of your spending.
💡 We believe in always paying our credit card bills on time and in full. It is only by doing that, can we fully maximise our credit card benefits.
